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Sentiment Exhibition at Camden People’s Theatre

Sentiment can be described as a multi-modal experience, comprising off rich dynamic audio from multiple speakers with related bio data delivered through a wearable haptic interface.

In 2013 Diane started interviewing her first participants gathering sentiments through conversations and bio data. With 40 questions such as, “How do you identify yourself?” “How do you feel about the decisions politicians make on your behalf?” and “Do you think there is meaning to life?” Over a year later and Diane had talked to over fifty participants, New Age Traveller, Monks, Army Personal, Asylum Seekers, Academics, Philosophers, Artists, Union Members, MP’s, Transgendered, and the oldest fire walkers in the whole of Shropshire. Throughout 2015/ 2016 Sentiment toured the UK.

The original participants can be heard through headphones, sometimes all jostling for your attention, other times a dominant voice with interjections. The end user can move freely round the space, choosing whom ever they want to listen to, while haptic feedback delivers the original participants emotional response through vibration.

“ It allowed me to adjust to what I am allowed to be aware of, other peoples conversations, other peoples thoughts, other peoples feelings.”

Listening back to some of the first interviews, there is a predictive quality to them. Participants were worried about the rise of UKIP, extremely concerned about the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, before any of us had heard of Isis or Brexit. What will the collective mind tell us in 2018?

Diane will be conducting new interviewing while the exhibition is on. It would be great if you could join her at Camden People’s Theatre on the 3rd-5th June.